


What's in a Name?: Origins of the Dollanganger Surname

by Tenthsun



Series: Dollanganger Questions [2]
Category: Flowers in the Attic - Fandom
Genre: Analysis, Character Analysis, Essays, Meta, Metafiction, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-17
Updated: 2018-02-17
Packaged: 2019-03-19 16:20:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,348
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13708131
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tenthsun/pseuds/Tenthsun
Summary: Where in the world did this name "Dollanganger" come from? As a native of Pennsylvania, I can't help but think that it's Dutch (if not German) and with that comes certain assumptions. Let's keep pulling this thread and see what unravels...





	What's in a Name?: Origins of the Dollanganger Surname

**Author's Note:**

> _I sill have questions about Chris Sr's murky past so here's another installment of Dollanganger Questions. I admit, this is a weird one. I can't truly call it just an analysis because my fan fiction brain couldn't help throwing in some speculative fiction assertions in the form of some (sadly deceased) original characters. So this is part essay, part analysis, part meta fiction. Hope you enjoy!_

**THE “DOLLANGANGER” SURNAME QUESTIONS**

 This and the other related questions have bugged me for a while. Here's what my brain churned out.

**1\. Where did this name come from?**  
**_Flowers In the Attic (FITA) says that "Dollanganger" is an old family name. Based on its spelling I’m assuming it’s either German or Dutch. My presumption is that it’s Dutch._**  That’s fine by me. There were quite a few Dutch in Pennsylvania, which is where FITA begins. The Dutch came over in the 1600s. So here’s my speculation. The name comes from Dutch ancestors in Pennsylvania in the 1600s. In the 1940s when Chris and Corrine got married, the last of the Dollangangers were dying out. The first to go was a great or possibly great-great uncle, **_Jacob van Dollanganger_**. Jacob owned Dollanganger Farm which is located in Pennsylvania’s Brandywine Valley not far from Chadds Ford and the Philadelphia metro area. I speculate that Jacob was in his 90s or older when he died, which would have been in 1940 or 41. Chris Sr would have inherited the farm. There was another Dollanganger relative, this time a great (or great-great) aunt, **_Cornelia van Dollanganger_**. She owned Dollanganger Cottage which was attached to the farm but owned under separate deed. Chris also inherits from her when she dies. I speculate she was something like 102 when she died, which would have been sometime between 1955 and 1957.

**2\. Why did they settle in Pennsylvania?**  
_**The Dollanganger inheritance meant Pennsylvania was the place to be in order to have resources.**_ So that’s where they went. How Chris Sr got into the computer industry I have no idea. Again it may go back to the question of his military service and whether or not he served in some capacity. See more details in the first installment of this series.

**3.** **How was he able to legally adopt the name in the 1950s?**  
_**I don’t know if he legally changed his name or simply informally adopted it.**_ I don’t see how he could have managed his life though without LEGALLY changing it. I suppose people, con artists mainly, have done it. But I think that would mean they were living on borrowed time, not just financially but criminally. I’m thinking they would be subjected to criminal charges if it was found that he was using an assumed name rather than a legal one. I suspect the Dollanganger inheritance has something to do with making it possible. Chris Sr might have waited until going to Pennsylvania to change his surname. It would conveniently hide him (he thought) from Malcolm. It would also solidify the reclamation of his ancestral Pennsylvania roots. No one would associate the Old Virginia name of Foxworth with the Pennsylvania Dutch name (so to speak; the Pennsylvania Dutch are actually German; they got that name from speaking Deutsch or the German name for the German language) of Dollanganger. (On a goofy side note: Did Chris and Corrine ever take the kids to Dutch Wonderland? It’s a Pennsylvanian thing. You wouldn’t understand!)

**4\. How was he able to legally marry Corrine?  
**_**Surprisingly, according to Wikipedia (for whatever that’s worth), it might have been entirely possible for an uncle to marry a niece in that day and age, especially if they were only half blood-related.**_ Also shocking, is that some people seem to have been a bit sanguine (no pun intended) about such marriages, equating them to the marriage of first cousins - which is by no means illegal in all 50 states. So I’ll have to further rethink this. I must however point out that currently, again per Wikipedia, that there are actual serious penalties associated with such relationships where they are illegal. I’ve seen up to 15 years without parole listed as well as the fact that some states consider this to be a felony. Penalties are lighter in California but you could wind up in jail for 2 years with possibility of parole in 16 months. Of course, these are present day penalties. I have no idea what the penalties were in the 1940s.

**6\. In which state were they presumably married?  
**_**From the little research I’ve done, the District of Columbia seems to be the most likely place.**_ First, because, if I’m recalling correctly, they could legally marry there. There would be no need to falsify their surnames. And since at the Christmas Party in FITA it’s shown that the guests KNOW that Corrine ran off with her half-uncle, I’m guessing that’s exactly what they did. Second, because it’s geographically closer to them than Pennsylvania. Because Corrine was pregnant, speed was of the essence. They had to get married IMMEDIATELY. Illegitimate births had REAL consequences back then so they had to act fast.

So how would the Dollanganger inheritance have played out in Chris Sr and Corrine's lives? And why couldn't it have saved Corrine and the kids after Chris Sr died? What happened to it?

**1\. It provided a source of income that allowed him and Corrine to survive and start their lives together.** They settled in Pennsylvania because of this inheritance, which Malcolm couldn't keep him from getting. Unfortunately, it didn’t last long. The farmland was mortgaged and was lost when the family’s finances collapsed in the wake of Chris Sr’s death. 

**2\. It’s likely Corrine’s presumed financial mismanagement contributed to this loss but we can’t rule out the possibility that Chris somehow contributed as well.** As noted in my Dollanganger fan fiction **"Come Greet Me With Kisses,"** I believe Chris Sr had a mistress. The woman was probably his assistant who travelled with him. His boss supported the relationship and hence turned a blind eye to any less than appropriate requests on the expense reports. Of course, that wouldn’t be enough. This mistress becomes pregnant and Chris talks her into keeping the baby. (WHY would he do that? Well, that's the subject of another work. Stay tuned...) So now he has to provide for THIS child as well as his other four.

**3\. I believe that Corrine got pregnant 7 years after having Cathy and Chris because she got wind that Chris Sr was having an affair.**  Once I was old enough to become aware of things like this, it occurred to me how odd it was that SEVEN YEARS went by before Chris Sr and Corrine had more children - especially in an age where the pill didn't exist. The twins increased the financial burden on the family and the nurturing burden on Corrine. True, she basically pawned them off onto Cathy but that wasn’t unusual at that time. Also, why would Corrine - a very vain woman - want to risk her figure again after she'd already produced a boy and a girl, one of each? Well, if her current meal ticket is having an affair that could take him away from her and she has no marketable job skills, she would do the next best thing. She would get pregnant. What better way to tie him closer to Corrine than for her to have another child or more children? I really can’t think of another reason that Corrine would want more children. I think the twins were simply a lever to keep Chris Sr tied to her. And to me that would explain why the twins somehow seemed to be a bit of an afterthought. Neither had the special relationship with a parent that Chris Jr and Cathy had. They were just devices to achieve an end.

**4\. As a result of this situation, Chris Sr did NOT tell Corrine anything about the inheritance of Dollanganger Cottage.** How he circumvented this news coming to Corrine through the mail I have no idea. In any case, Corrine never learned about it. And Chris Sr used THAT property to provide for his child outside of his marriage. This meant Chris Jr and Cathy never heard of it either. Although you have to wonder why, after learning the insane history of the Foxworth family, they wouldn't try to learn more about the Dollanganger name and its history.

**Fin _(for now...)_**

**Author's Note:**

> _Well, hope that made some kind of sense. It was only after discussions with members of The Attic Secrets Facebook group that it dawned on me: I was a native of Pennsylvania when I read Flowers in the Attic and of course, since I was a kid, I couldn't help checking maps and trying to see if there actually WAS a Gladstone, PA. I had no luck then. But now as an adult I've been able to discover there is. Or at least there was. There was a Gladstone Manor that gave its name to a suburban neighborhood within a larger suburban community. There is also a Gladstone train station. Chew on THAT._
> 
> _Also, when you grow up in Pennsylvania, you can't help but hear about the Pennsylvania Dutch (who aren't really Dutch but German). And while there are a lot of Welsh place names in the area (like Bala Cynwyd and Bryn Mawr) there are also Dutch names like Schuylkill River. The Dutch came over here in the 1600s and the state's founder William Penn, I THINK had a Dutch mother. So there's a strong strain of Dutch culture in Pennsylvania if you look for it._
> 
> _Lastly, anyone out there know what I mean about Dutch Wonderland? Let me know if you do!_


End file.
